History Helps Volume Six, Number 10, September 2006
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• Greetings
• School Opening
• Skill Testing Question from the 1950s
• Provincial Hansard
• Subscription, Privacy Policy

WELCOME TO AUTUMN!

“SCHOOL OPENING, LADNER

(From an Occasional Correspondent)

LADNER, Nov. 7 -- Thursday last, the 3rd Nov. inst., will always remain a memorable day for Ladner; for on that day, we formally opened the large and beautiful four-roomed school house recently built for us by the Educational Department.

The design of this handsome building was furnished by our talented townsman and senior trustee, Mr. Thos. W. Kerr, and was adopted by the Department in its entirety. The school house consists of a centre building, two storeys high, with a wing of one storey on each side, and having an ample porch verandah.

Attached to the school is one entire townsite block of about two and a half acres, affording abundant room for playgrounds, ornamental tree planting, and flower beds. A lofty flagstaff had been erected on the front of the main building, and the hoisting of a fine large British flag opened the ceremony as a token that this school was to be a seat of loyalty as well as of learning...”

Source: The [New Westminster] Daily Columbian, 08 November 1898, page two.

Skill-Testing Question from the 1950s

“You Count Them

This is an old one copied from an almanac but try it and see how good you are. Read this sentence.

Federal laws are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.

Now count the F’s in the sentence -- only once; don’t go back and count them again.

ANSWER -- There are five F’s in the sentence. An average intelligence finds three of them. If you spotted four, you’re above average.

If you caught all five, you’re a genius and a lot too good to be wasting your time on foolishness like this.”

Source: The Ladner Optimist, 09 April 1953, page two.

Provincial Hansard

“Historian calls for Prov. Hansard

A new and important voice was added today to those calling for a Hansard system of verbatim reporting of debates of the B.C. legislature.

Dr. Margaret Ormsby, University of B.C. history professor, who is writing an official history of British Columbia from 1858 to 1958, said that a Hansard would make her job of collecting political material easier. Hers will be the first general history of B.C. written since 1913. It is being sponsored by the B.C. Centennial Committee.

‘The archives here really contain a splendid collection, is rich in government records, private papers of premiers and an amazing collection of private documents of everyone from fur traders to early settlers and on down through the years,’ she said.

‘But a handicap is the lack of a Hansard in this province. It would give us a more complete picture of political development. There was very full newspaper coverage of debates for many years, but now we have to depend on the House Journals, even orders of the day, and on scanty newspaper coverage.

‘But they have a wonderful newspaper index here and an amazingly good collection of micro-filmed newspapers. And we have access to official and departmental records.’”

Source: The Ladner Optimist, Thursday, 04 July 1957, page eight.

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Gwen Szychter, M.A.

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